Digital maps for wetlands approved

Friday

ELIOT, Maine — The Board of Selectmen has approved an expenditure of $4,950 to purchase an accurate digital map that shows the location of streams, wetlands and shoreland in the town.

ELIOT, Maine — The Board of Selectmen has approved an expenditure of $4,950 to purchase an accurate digital map that shows the location of streams, wetlands and shoreland in the town.

"The Conservation Commission, the Planning Board and the code enforcement officer strongly support this effort because it will provide them with a much more accurate location of the wetlands and streams," chairman Jack Murphy said.

Murphy said the existing maps are only accurate to plus-or-minus 40 feet, while the new maps will be accurate to within 1 foot.

"The maps will also assist the town in administering the new state-mandated shoreland zoning ordinance that places additional restrictions on building within the zones near to streams," he said.

According to Clayton Smith, chairman of the Conservation Commission, the money for purchasing the maps was already budgeted to the commission and carried over from the previous year, not affecting the current year's budget.

In a phone conversation, Smith said the new maps will be produced by GIS Mapping and Analysis of Portland, which will utilize April 2007 aerial photographs taken by Bradstreet, Inc.

The maps will allow town officials and citizens to pinpoint the precise location of water bodies and wetlands and to resolve questions regarding town and state regulations, he said.

Getting the digital maps is a very important first step for the town in making the transition to a geographical information system approach to mapping and regulating the water resources of the town, he said.

The next step would be providing more hardware, software and training to town employees, or simply outsourcing the work to contractors, he said.

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